[bblost]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Well, no offense to smokers, but there are research articles proving that. Discriminating smokers and non smokers is only an effort to make smokers leave the habit of smoking. Do we really need all that smoke and tar within us?

But that is a choice that MUST be made by the individual. No one has the right to decide how someone has decided to kill themselves.

bblost has clearly pointed the ill effects of smoking which set me thinking and now on I put forth all those points to my friends who smoke, whenever possible.

My signature is my attempt to highlight the Quit Smoking part.
I strongly believe that if it was not for the easy availability of cancer sticks, I would have never become a smoker. The sad thing is that the conditions that made me a smoker still exist. Smoking is still glorified in the media. Loose sticks are still available in the market. Some positive action has happened like banning smoking in public but the enforcement is pathetic to say the least.

Customers need not be discriminated. That is unwanted. And i don't support that part either.

Doesn't the employer have the right to write his own terms and conditions for his organization and design his employee contract terms?

People can take it in the right perspective that it is all for a good cause and not to discriminate or highlight smokers.

An employer can at best ban smoking on his company premises. What the employee does in his house with his money is his choice.

While I appreciate your sentiment, I rate freedom higher. Even if that freedom means the other person is slowly killing himself.

Slightly unrelated but since I mentioned smoking in the house.
Cigarette ash is radioactive. So if you are smoking in your house and have kids, think about it.

[Gansan]

Well, the learned chairman of this bank can certainly enforce it on the students of his school, may be even on the parents, but certainly not on his employees or customers. I am sure this sacking of employees who start smoking or 1 % extra interest charged on customers who smoke will be shot down by the courts, if someone challenges them. He can however make his bank a smoke free zone, thus indirectly influencing smokers.

My office started to curb smoking more than a decade back. Smoking in the seat was prohibited and there were designated "smoking corners". Then from 2nd October 2008, the entire office was made a smoke free zone.

And it does help. A colleague who used to finish 6 cigarettes from 9 AM - 5 PM, initially used to sneak to the toilet for the smokes, and was cursing continuosly! Now it has subsided and he is resigned to the fact he can smoke only at home or in his club. Though he has not quit, he is smoking a lot less. And there are a a few others who have given up altogether.

[Wolfheart]

Originally Posted by GTO

Hats off? I'd say he is the biggest idiot I have heard of in recent time. Firstly, his belief that non-smokers would contribute more (work wise) than smokers is completely off the mark. Second, he does NOT have the right to discriminate between employees or customers based on whether they smoke or not.

Thanks for the headsup. I do have an office branch in Rajkot and will be sure to steer clear of the Rajkot Co-Operative Bank. His stance on smokers shows that he is a man of extremely limited thinking.

Exactly! Is this guy crazy? How can he penalize smokers and charge them a higher rate of interest? That's discrimination. I wonder how such self righteous morons ascend to senior positions in the first place.

Even I would never do business with this bank because of Mr. Khunt. Besides, his name says it all! (sorry couldn't resist that one)

[Thad E Ginathom]

Penalizing the customers? Simple: he will just loose them!

Yes, smoke-free offices does help. The fact that my London office was declared smoke-free at the same time as I gave up was a great help. Some time after that, the building managers banned smokers from standing in the main entrance, which

Besides, his name says it all!

[shankar.balan]

I managed to give it up. almost 3 months now (so far) - no cigarettes.
feel much better indeed.
the only thing I will say here is that there is no halfway house measure in this. Either you smoke, or you dont. No mid point trying to cut down etc etc - all that is an absolute waste of time and effort.
In quitting smoking there are no shades of grey - only black or white.
The real test is not the act of quitting per se, but staying quit.

[Judemayne]

I used to smoke 60 plus cigarettes a day that to Panama the non filter types because my cliche was "nothing should come between me and the flavour -not even the filter". Trust me whenever someone ticked me off and queried me on the positives of smoking I gave them 07 reasons of why smoking helps-in my heart I knew that I was burning my lungs and pockets. I stopped in 1993 after 21 years of regular smoking. I have no arguement against persons who state its their choice or their freedom or its their life-no it is not! If you are married you have your wife, kids parents and their friends and there is a thing which is true "the passive smoker" -at home I used to smoke about 20 cigs a day out of the 60+ and all the time my wife and kids were in the near vicinity.
Secondly no one else can help you to stop-the only person that can assist you is yourself!

[noopster]

I went from "regular smoker" (pack a day) to "light smoker" (3-4 a day) to "occasional smoker" (only when I drink, don't buy packs, only when someone else offers etc.) but at the end of the day only managed to quit the habit when I realised that all these were just excuses to keep on doing it. There is a chilling line in a Robin Williams movie where he tells another character who's trying to quit, "You're either a smoker or a non-smoker. Pick one, then stick with it."

A wise friend of mine (himself a heavy smoker) was always amused at my constant attempts to quit and would counsel me to heed Osho's advice: if you want to quit, smoke more than you hav ever smoked in your life! I don't think I understood this till I actually quit. The earlier attempts at "quitting" were characterized by one constantly lingering fear: how would I go my WHOLE LIFE without ever experiencing the sweet taste of a cigarette on my lips? Now that I am not haunted by that thought anymore, it becomes rather easy to stay clean.

Having said that, here are some practical tips:
- Get married to a non-smoker. My own wife never nagged me to quit or even hinted at it, but sooner or later you hate the thought of poisoning the person who's agreed to spend their whole life with you.
- Have kids. Surely you have more sense than to expose your children to second hand smoke. I reduced my smoking drastically after my daughter was born. As she grew older I would observe her stare curiously and a little fearfully at my friends who smoked and swore that she would never see me smoking again.
- Smoke only when you drink. As lame as this sounds, if drinking is not a big part of your routine life, soon you will learn to make do without smokes on most days.
- When ready to quit, be wary of the "triggers" and avoid those. So if you're already in the "only smoke when I drink" phase, I would suggest giving up drinking for a while (I did this for 6 months). If your biggest problem is the "after-dinner walk" smoke, give up the after dinner walk and do something else instead, like wash the dishes. Keep your wifey happy while you're at it!
- Keep a detailed journal of the number of cigarettes you smoke and the circumstances under which you smoked each one. Read it back to yourself every month or so. You will learn to identify the triggers and avoid them. It will also make you realise how much you actually smoke (a lot of us lie to ourselves, "Oh I only smoke 3-4 a day", while the actual number may be double that or more). Once you have quit, continue maintaining this journal but with what you did instead of smoking recorded: taking a long walk or going for a drive, for example.
- Make certain areas of your life smoke-free. For me it started with home (easier once the baby came). Then work (it helped that our office smoking zones were really far from my building!)
- My Mom always warned me about the dangers of "keeping bad company" and I'd laugh her off but it's true that the more you hang out with smokers, the more likely you're likely to do it yourself. Be polite but firm. Explain what you're trying to do and why, and if they're really your friends, they will accept it. A big fear is that of being laughed at as "uncool", but you'll be surprised how the warm glow of righteousness can overcome that easily.
- At the same time, don't be too hard on yourself if Wills power trumps willpower. So many of my friends despair thinking, now that I've smoked one I may as well smoke a 1000. That's just stupid. Accept that you're human, you made a mistake and keep going. It may (and probably will) take several attempts before you finally quit. And once you have- believe me, you'll know!

[janitha]

Planning seriously to quit after a very long time. Has anybody got details as to how far medicines like Smoquit SR, Champix or Chantix will be helpful? Being serious, I have consulted a doctor today and he prescribed Champix 0.5mg once for 3 days, then twice for 4 days and 2mg for 3 months and asked me to contact a representative to get it. When I telephoned him, he told me he will courier it to my address and collect cash after few days since his office is at Trivandrum. He told a fortnight course will cost about Rs.1300/- + of MRP but will charge only about 1K+! Asked him to send that much only and hope I will be able to manage myself, once I can fight the urge for just few days.

[simply_sunny001]

Originally Posted by janitha

Planning seriously to quit after a very long time. Has anybody got details as to how far medicines like Smoquit SR, Champix or Chantix will be helpful? Being serious, I have consulted a doctor today and he prescribed Champix 0.5mg once for 3 days, then twice for 4 days and 2mg for 3 months and asked me to contact a representative to get it. When I telephoned him, he told me he will courier it to my address and collect cash after few days since his office is at Trivandrum. He told a fortnight course will cost about Rs.1300/- + of MRP but will charge only about 1K+! Asked him to send that much only and hope I will be able to manage myself, once I can fight the urge for just few days.

this is just hogwash mate, trying to quit one addiction at cost of developing another one, it will never work and complete waste of money.

What are you scared of, infact your life will be much better after you quit so just break this chain reaction and START LIVING YOUR LIFE.

good luck

[Thad E Ginathom]

There are medicines which help to reduce the nicotine craving. I do not know if there is a risk of becoming addicted to them. Can one of our doctor members tell us about this?

Nicotine replacement therapies can, indeed, be useful. In a way, it is similar to saying 3 cigarettes a day this week, 2 a day next week, 1 the week and after and then... none. They can also help to break the physical habit aspects.

I understood with myself that I had had made a firm and absolute undertaking to be a non-smoker by a certain date. I used Nicotine Patches to help me out with the symptoms. When we smoke, we get a rush of nicotine. In fact, the less we smoke, the greater the rush is, which is one of the great dangers of actually cutting down 3-2-1. This was why that method never worked for me, because that cigarette, after so many hours, blew my head off and, of course I wanted another.

The nicotine patches maintain the blood nicotine level just above craving point, but do it by continual through-skin delivery, so we get neither the craving nor the rush of a sudden nicotine dose. They are graduated, and, at each dose reduction, there is a day or two of minor discomfort while our body comes to accept the lesser dosage.

If I remember correctly, it was a three-month course that I took. My birthday is at the start of July. I took that decision some time in April, and actually gave up the patches (I forgot, one day, and didn't notice, so thought I'd call it a day and myself a non-smoker) a couple of weeks before the deadline.

Some people wonder what all the fuss was about, others can cope with cold turkey however bad it gets. There's a way and a method somewhere on that scale for everyone, or, at least, everyone who manages to make the decision which is the most important thing.

It is quite a big deal, giving up a highly addictive substance. Other things have fallen away out of my life with no drama at all; nicotine was a toughy. Maybe that's why I still get something out of writing about it, and I sure hope that what I right might ring the right bells and be useful to one or two others.

Nicotine was one thing: just nobody ask me tor try giving up sugar! That, and the tea in which I get most of my refined sugar, would be a million times harder to give up than smoking was!

[R2D2]

To the smokers on this forum:

I gave up smoking after 16 years (1988-2004). I used to smoke 15-20 cigarettes a day. I quit by sheer determination combined with the support of my family, mainly my wife.

If I can do it, you can too. Please give it up. I know colleagues/friends who I know have suffered immeasurably including heart attacks and strokes.

Please don't let a heart attack or cancer cure your smoking habit.

Rgds,

[avishar]

Yes i am in that phase of life college,hostel and with it the vices too.Been smoking 3-4 cigs a day for the last 2.5 yrs and i am 21.
However i have seen myself that i can giving up smoking for extended periods of time when i am at home for my holidays.Its because i am wary of my parents.During this time i feel not much discomfort and soon i would get busy with others things at home.Often when the day has almost passed by i would realise i have not smoked,and i would feel pleased about myself.
But yes that lasts only till holidays,by the time i come back to college its back to old routine!Wonder when will i be able to give it up.

[bblost]

Yesterday was a sudden and chilling reminder of how sly nicotine is.

That is the view from my balcony.

YouTube - SkyLIne

I am home alone as my wife is staying over at her parents house.
A heavy dinner and I am feeling a little too full for comfort. Standing in the balcony and enjoying the slight chill in the winds. Long back my friend had gifted me a carton of Marlboro's. There are roughly 60 cancer sticks in my house. They have remained in the same drawer for more than 2 years now. I suddenly remembered them. I remembered everything from the taste of the first cigarette. The happy memories in college associated with cigarettes and friends. Feeling very pensive, I start rationalizing. Why not have just one. Who will know. It is statistically insignificant.
Then another voice starts. The voice of fear. Let me throw them all away. That way I can avoid confronting the urge to smoke.

But all that I have learnt since I quit smoking makes me stronger. Those 60 sticks are still there. I just made some coffee for myself. I quit smoking and I will stick with it.

Never did I imagine that the urge can hit back with so much force even 2 years after the last stick. We need to be on guard at all times.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by bblost

Yesterday was a sudden and chilling reminder of how sly nicotine is.
...
Never did I imagine that the urge can hit back with so much force even 2 years after the last stick. We need to be on guard at all times.

That is scary. I have been quit (as in TOTALLY quit) for just over 3 months now. Can imagine how you must feel after 2 years cold turkey.

But take my advice, ditch those sticks! Yesterday was fine, but there will be other times when you feel the urge and cutting off the supply always helps.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by bblost

Food tastes so much better. You remember how feeling hungry feels. Even minute amounts of spices in food make themselves felt.

Exactly what i'm worried about. Kick the butt, appetite goes up and so does weight.